I’ve had the chance to speak with various folks over the past few weeks about their creativity. Some of them are developers or testers, worried about the IP agreements their companies want them to sign. Others are writers, worried about book contracts. In each case, the company or publisher wanted to “own” all the creative […]
Who Owns Your Creativity? Read More »
A few weeks ago, I was at the Agile 2018 conference. The conference has changed from its beginnings. It’s now full of certifications and big consulting organizations that will sell you “the One Right agile framework,” regardless of your context (my caps). My experience is that if you want any kind of change—personal or professional—your
How Can You Understand Someone’s Context? Read More »
I recently met a digital nomad. She literally travels the world, writing in various places. She has many chances to experience various cultures. She is open to many possibilities. I said to her, “I can’t do that.” She asked, “Why not?” She’s not the only person who’s challenged my thinking around possibilities or choices. The reality
How Can You Change ‘I Can’t’ to Why Not? Read More »
One of my problem-solving approaches is to generate options. When I don’t generate enough options, I don’t see how to proceed. Before I knew about the Rule of Three, I, often, took the first option I considered. It was often a pretty good option. I learned later that I had more options—and they were often better
How Can You Create Time or Space for More Options? Read More »
I meet many managers, coaches, and consultants who say that people “resist” their ideas. I meet too many people with vertigo who say they “resist” their problems. They don’t use assistive devices such as canes or rollators. They fall over. I have a friend who is a diabetic who still eats sugar and carbs. She
Do We Have Resistance or Denial When We Need Resilience? Read More »
I was thinking about resilience and redundancy a lot this week. We had a big weekend last week (we gained a son-in-law) so this week was a week of what I like to call “preventative maintenance.” We had doctor’s appointments, car appointments, and the tree guys came to cut back some of our trees. I
Where Do You Have Redundancy? Read More »
I recently listened to a podcast about scaling agile. I was sort of okay with what they said until they said this: “You need a tool to do this thing right.” Uh, no. Not at all. (I actually yelled at the podcast. Sheesh.) You don’t need a tool to accomplish what they suggested. In fact, when people
When Do You Need a Tool? Read More »
How do you feel about change: do you like what’s new or what works? Sometimes I like new things. I love to try new recipes—often with company! I’ll try new software without a second thought. I’ll try various processes for my own work, especially if I think I’ll get a throughput bump. I especially like
Do You Want What’s New or What Works? Read More »
I see the world as having plenty: plenty of interesting work, plenty of people, plenty of chocolate, plenty of everything. That’s the abundance mindset. Other people see the world more as a zero-sum game, where there is not enough of anything to go around. They need to grab what they want when they see it.
Do You Believe in Scarcity or Abundance? Read More »
A friend sent me a very long treatise about complexity. The author contends that we, as humans, have a confirmation bias towards complexity. I’m not linking to it because I found the writing too complex to read. I’m not going to inflict that on you. However, I do think the question is useful: are we
Are We Biased to the Simple or Complex? Read More »